In 2014, Dakota’s coverage was 64 percent. They are now up to 98 percent at speeds of 25/3 and 64 percent at speeds of 100/20. They have built the network through the County. The County has been very purposeful about growing their network by partnering with anchor institutions, the State local governments and other counties. More recently they have been pushing to extend the network to local residents and businesses. They had applied for the latest round of Minnesota Broadband grants but were not award one.

The County has been an advocate for Dig Once and a leader in streamlining broadband deployment by streamlining permitting processes and they have been generous with sharing policies and forms as a model to other counties.

Dakota County is also in line to receive $763,925 in CAF 2 funding to upgrade 1,893 locations. Unfortunately CAF 2 recipients are only required to upgrade to 10/1 access. Many may choose to upgrade to better speeds but there are no requirements.

Numbers:

The Office of Broadband Development released data on broadband covered in fall of 2016, based on information gathered in July 2016. Here’s how Dakota County ranked:

• Percentage served with 25/3 or better: 98.47
• Percentage served with 100/20 or better: 64.18

Mississippi State University Extension have come up with a ranking system to gauge the digital divide index (DDI) by county. (The lower the number the better – the state average is 40.66.) Here’s how Dakota ranked:

DDI score of 15.60 out of 100.

More info:

• Find more articles on broadband in Dakota County. (http://tinyurl.com/hxslue9)
• Districts: CD 2 / 51, 52, 54, 56, 57 & 58

I plan to profile each county in Minnesota – tracking broadband access, digital divide and annotated links to news of what’s happening with broadband in the county. I’m keeping it high level because there are 87 counties!